1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a class of weapons for immobilization and capture which are referred to as "stun guns" and more specifically to a subclass of those weapons having a pair of electrically opposed target probes between which a current is generated to disable a human or other animal target when the probes are manually placed in contact with such target and the weapon is energized.
2. Prior Art
Manually connected electrical discharge weapons are intended to be hand held, concealable upon the person, and conveniently portable. Accordingly, such a weapon's height is normally less than 7", its width is normally less than 2.75", and its depth is about 0.75". The target contacts are typically spaced about 2.5" apart along the weapon's width. The weapons shock with circuits similar to those described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,132, titled Power Supply For Weapon For Immobilization And Capture and issued to John Cover in February, 1981, for inclusion in stun guns with ballistic delivery systems.
Numerous U.S. Patents have been granted for improvement of these manually connected weapons. U.S. Pat. No. 4,688,140 issued to Hammes in August, 1987; U.S. Pat. No. 4,872,084 issued to Dunning, et al, in October, 1989; U.S. Pat. No. 5,193,048 issued to Kaufman, et al, in March, 1993, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,654,867 issued to Murray in August, 1997.
According to a report at page 41 of Volume 33, Number 6, that is the June, 1985 copy of the journal Law and Order, during a portion of a field test of the manually connected weapons conducted by the Dallas, Tex. Police Department, the weapons were found to be ineffective at helping to control suspects an astounding 63% of the time. In fact, some officers participating in the study stated that use of the weapons did little more than further incite already violent suspects. Experiments reported in U.S. Pat. No. 5,841,622 establish that the typical probe spacing on the manually connected shock weapons is inadequate for immobilizing a human target. At least several additional inches of space is needed between the contacts or the weapon shock may be insufficient to cause a sustained involuntary contraction of the target's muscle, which contraction is sufficient to rigidly fixate joints and hamper ambulation. Targets may (but cannot be predicted to) submit during stun gun applications as the result of pain compliance. Moreover, experimental observations also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,841,622 establish that at safe power levels of 5 watts or less, even with adequate spacing between the contacts, the shocks are insufficient to cause muscular contractions that will move limbs. During or prior to the shock, the target must first contract muscle to flex or extend the limb where the additional electrically stimulated contraction is sufficient to fixate the limb, preventing antagonist muscles from returning the limb to its previous position. A target may pull away from the shock before this happens.